John O'Boyle/The Star-Ledger Kathleen Dorsett, her mother Lesley Dorsett and father Thomas Dorsett enter a courtroom at the Monmouth County Courthouse in Freehold in this May file photo. All are charged with various crimes related to the death of Kathleen Dorsett's ex-husband.

OCEAN TOWNSHIP — Prosecutors in Monmouth County get a second chance to convince a court to disqualify the attorney for the Ocean Township man accused of killing his former son-in-law and hiring an arsonist to set fire to the car where the body was hidden.

In an order issued last week, the Supreme Court permitted the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office to appeal a decision keeping defense attorney Steven Nelson as the lawyer for accused killer Thomas Dorsett.

With that matter still pending, Superior Court Judge Anthony Mellaci Jr. today set Jan. 11 as the next date for attorneys to discuss scheduling Dorsett’s trial.

Prosecutors contended in hearings this summer that Nelson should be barred from representing Dorsett because the attorney may be called as a witness to Dorsett’s failed suicide attempt a week after Stephen Moore’s body was found in a burning car on Aug. 18, 2010.

But Mellaci, agreeing with Nelson’s argument that prosecutors could call police as witnesses, said in June there was no need to disqualify Dorsett’s defense attorney.

Prosecutor’s attempted to challenge the decision but the Appellate Division would not hear the issue. The Supreme Court order on Nov. 1 directed the appeals court to address the matter.

Dorsett, 65, is accused along with his daughter Kathleen Dorsett, 37, of killing Moore, 42, after an argument at her home across the street from her parents’ house in the Oakhurst section of Ocean Township. Kathleen Dorsett is accused of killing Moore on Aug. 16, 2010, with a blunt instrument. Prosecutors say her father put the body in the trunk of Moore’s mother’s 2001 Nissan Altima before arranging to have it set on fire.

The morning after his daughter was arrested, Thomas Dorsett, who owned an air-conditioning repair business, attempted to kill himself by ingesting refrigerant while parked at Nelson’s office on Aug. 24 in Neptune. Nelson found his client unconscious and called 911.

Thomas Dorsett’s wife, Lesley Dorsett, is accused of trying to kill Moore’s mother in January on instructions from their jailed daughter.

Moore moved in with his mother in Manchester after he and Kathleen Dorsett separated in late 2009. Divorced in June 2010, the couple was involved in a bitter court battle over Moore’s visitation with their toddler daughter.